Sri Lanka military defends prison riot killings !

Sri Lanka’s military on Monday defended its soldiers who have been accused of “massacring’ prisoners during a jail riot last week, saying the inmates were heavily armed and posed a danger to the public.

Opposition political parties accused security forces of “killing in cold blood” after the deaths of 27 inmates in maximum-security Welikada jail in Colombo during a riot on Friday and Saturday morning. “I reject these allegations completely,” military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said, adding that there was “stiff resistance” from prisoners armed with assault rifles looted from the prison armoury. “Our objective was not to go in and (fire) burst around. If we did not go in, there was a risk of 4,000 convicts escaping and posing a bigger danger,” he added. The army was deployed at the request of the police in line with legal provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, Wanigasooriya said, rejecting opposition claims that the military had no authority to intervene. http://eng.lankasri.com/view.php?2bmM0e0dXO40ecBmA2a4LYc2d2A5L2c3ABT244Al1223MAI2